Superhell: Zeldagis

[pathopen]

Comments

[pathopen]

[He really has just been sitting here for minutes. Not drinking.]

No. I haven't had... very much before.

[hardrocklife]

Don't force yourself. It's not very good. [He takes a sip of his own.]

[pathopen]

Have you found anything good here?

[hardrocklife]

Not really...

[His best cup of coffee came with a side of burning plastic fumes, so that's how this week's been going.]

The food's fine, I guess. I've had worse, anyway.

[pathopen]

Nothing has tasted bad yet.

[Besides the dry noodles.]

[hardrocklife]

I see you also have low standards.

[is that an insult. to both of them]

That's probably for the best. It means you'll have an easier time getting by here.

[pathopen]

I don't have standards to begin with.

[It's hard to build them up in under a year.]

[hardrocklife]

[A nod of approval. Good. That's the way. Expectations only lead to disappointment.]

Come to think of it, it looked like they never finished your profile. You got a name?

[pathopen]

[ This may or may not a a bad influence. ]

There wasn't much to write about. I didn't have one before I died.

[hardrocklife]

You didn't have one...? Why not?

[pathopen]

I wasn't meant to have a conscious at all.

[hardrocklife]

What were you "meant" to be, then?

[pathopen]

A battery for somebody else's creation.

[hardrocklife]

... Are you a copy?

[pathopen]

I look like the other homunculi. But I'm not sure we're copies of each other.

[hardrocklife]

A homunculus... an artificially-constructed human, then?

[That's what he comes up with after a couple seconds of consulting his mental Dictionary of Magic Bullshit.]

[pathopen]

Yes. Though we're not considered human.

[hardrocklife]

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

[People sure like to gatekeep the idea of what counts as "human."]

You said there are others like you. Are they not conscious, too?

[pathopen]

[ Mages are especially stuffy about it. ]

Not in the same way. Usually... Usually we can only do what we're told.

[ Their "set programming", so to say. ]

[hardrocklife]

[There's a thoughtful look. He can think of a few things this might remind him of...]

Any idea why you ended up different from the rest?

[pathopen]

[ He looks down at his untouched drink and wonders about it himself. ]

I really don't know. It could've been a glitch?

[hardrocklife]

Must've surprised the hell out of your creator.

[pathopen]

When I broke out of my holding tube, I was supposed to be captured and sent back.

... I tried to fight against them. That's how I died.

[hardrocklife]

[......

A sympathetic look. That's rough, buddy.]

... In the end, how long were you even conscious?

[pathopen]

...

I think it was less than a day.

[hardrocklife]

[.........

Zelgadis downs the remainder of his beer in one, long swig. Then, he reaches over and takes the other beer away from this three-day-old homunculus.]

You're not old enough to drink this yet.

[pathopen]

Oh.

[He watches it get taken and doesn't make any attempt to take it back.]

If you say so?

[Not that he can get any older.]

[hardrocklife]

[He takes a sip. His booze now. You can drink when you're twenty (days old).]

So what now? You're not exactly free, but you're out. Anything you were hoping to do once you got out of there?

[pathopen]

I didn't have many plans. I just... didn't want to die.

It looks like that failed.

[hardrocklife]

... Yeah.

You're in good company, at least. I think we all failed in that regard.

[pathopen]

That's true...

It's hard to know what I want in hell.

[hardrocklife]

Makes sense. It's a sort of cruel irony to only get to begin your life after you've already reached the afterlife.

... Have you given any thought to a name you want to go by?

[pathopen]

[Such is the cruelty of the afterlife?]

I've been given the names Micah and Cosmos. I like both of them.

[hardrocklife]

Not bad.

[At least neither of those sound like a name he'll regret forever.]

... My name is Zelgadis.

[pathopen]

Zelgadis.

[Quietly nods to himself. He will remember this.]